History of Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting has been used to identify a unique individual since antiquity. Fingerprints have been found on ancient Babylonian clay tablets dating to at least 2,000 BC, which were likely used as signatures on official documents. By around 300 AD, Chinese documents were often impressed with finger prints to serve as signatures, or sealed with wax containing an impressed thumbprint to protect against forgery.

The image above depicts fingerprints found impressed in an ancient Babylonian tablet.

In 1858, Sir William James Herschel, a British Magistrate in India, began using impressed fingerprints on contracts. Soon, Herschel noticed that no two persons had identical fingerprints, and thus that a fingerprint could be used to identify an individual. Herschel's private conviction of the practical applications of fingerprints contributed to their widespread use in law enforcement and jurisprudence.





 The image shown is of the contract and impressed handprint that Herschel first used in the authenticating of a contract.

In 1863, Paul-Jean Coulier, a french professor, published his observations that otherwise invisible (latent) fingerprints could be identified via certain chemical processes. This helps pave the way for the fingerprints widespread use in law enforcement for identifying suspects.


Dr. Henry Faulds, who recognized the significance of fingerprints, devised a classification system for fingerprints in the 1870s. In the 1880s, he sent Charles Darwin his findings and classification system. Darwin, in advanced age and a poor state of health, told Faulds that he could be of no assistance to him, but did pass the information on to his cousin, Francis Galton. Galton then published various research on fingerprints, and encouraged its use in forensic science in the book Finger Prints.

 
Henry Faulds.

In Argentina, in 1879, the first organized system of recording the fingerprints of individuals on file, based on Galton's pattern classifications, was developed.The first criminal case in which fingerprints were used to aid in an investigation was an 1892 murder case in which a bloody thumbprint was found on a doorknob. When compared with the suspect's thumb, the prints were found to be identical.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, many western nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States began keeping file of criminal's fingerprints, and using them in cases.
In 1902, a thief who had been previously arrested and had his fingerprints filed, broke into an apartment and killed a man. The thief and murderer left a fingerprint on a piece of glass, and this evidence was recovered and used to convict the suspect.


Today, fingerprints are recorded when a suspect is arrested, or when entering certain employment. Government organizations such as the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security, have databases of over 100 million sets of fingerprints. Computers are typically used to aid in the matching and identification of fingerprints. Many security systems utilize computerized fingerprint scanning technology to verify a person's identity.


 
A fingerprint scanner.